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OLYMPIA, Wash. — Legislation (Senate Bill 5331) giving Washington’s Insurance Commissioner the authority to order restitution for harmed policyholders was voted out of the state’s Senate Business, Financial Services and Trade Committee today.
Currently, the Insurance Commissioner can fine insurance companies or professionals that violate the law but cannot order them to pay restitution to the people they’ve victimized.
“The Office of the Insurance Commissioner is a quasi-legal and quasi-judiciary agency with our own administrative law judge and law enforcement officers,” said Washington State Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer. “It was designed to be a one-stop shop for policyholders. But under the current law, we cannot give people what they really want when they’ve been wronged by an insurance company or individual — their money back.”
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